Grandpa Sam's Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in Town of Ogden

The staff is clearly overworked trying to balance dine-in, phone-in and GrubHub orders. On two separate occasions my experience through GrubHub has been a disappointment (please feel free to read my other business reviews as I don't enjoy giving negative reviews!!). The first mixup was a completely dry, no-sauce ravioli order that was supposed to be pumpkin ravioli over a year ago; and the issue tonight, after wanting to give them a second chance, was that they claimed my GrubHub order never came through (GrubHub showed it as ready for pickup). I went through GH customer support to refund my $100 order which must have triggered a call to the restaurant, because then the restaurant called me to explain that my order was indeed ready and that I gave them the wrong name 😂. I explained, "no, I gave you my legal last name and you misheard it as a similar-sounding first name because your bar area was a little loud. But I also showed you my GrubHub order and you could have actually checked my name or my GH order number." I then mentioned that it would be a lot easier to discuss this in person as I was currently sitting at a bar waiting for takeout from another nearby Italian restaurant (5 stars from me for saving my night!); the employee did not like hearing that and said something along the lines of "okay, thank you I guess you have a goodnight bye". I get it - she was frustrated too; but I guarantee you that I would not make up a random name when I come in for my own family's takeout order 🤣. All of this, and they were also explaining to the GrubHub delivery drivers behind me that the orders weren't ready yet either which caused one delivery driver to walk out and give up on the order. You can't blame GrubHub for this if other restaurants like Texas BBQ and Mangia Mangia nearby have never screwed up a GH order on me and you have both times. It comes down to reviewing your operations as a restaurant and understanding that it's not an identical model to your older generation of phone-in customers. It's not easy, I understand that, especially when another business (GH) definitely has a lot of leverage and is protected by a wall of customer support employees; but it still makes no sense to try and call me to explain to me that I gave the wrong...

Been here a couple times now. The first time I thought my ravioli taste weird but I constituted it to the fact that I was pregnant and it was probably me. We went back last week. The chicken parm was salty, the seafood bisque was more cream than seafood. and the seafood in it was tough. We got pizza for my little one, which I tasted and was AMAZING. Super good Pizza. fast forward were ready to go. We get the check and handed the waitress a $100 bill. She must have been at the register for 15 minutes as we were waiting for change. Another woman, I assume to be the manager, approaches us. Instead of coming to the table and handing us the change so that we can tip the waitress and leave, this woman voices ACROSS THE RESTAURANT, "I CANNOT ACCEPT YOUR MONEY BECAUSE I'M NOT SURE IF ITS REAL," with her arm extended to hand it back. I got it from the bank so I'm not concerned it was counterfeit whatsoever. She proceeds to EMBARRASS US in a restaurant full of people! The bill was a little older so it wasn't blue like the current 100 bills. I told her check it with a marker. She doesn't have one and keeps insisting we pay with a card. I hate using cards at restaurants because you have to wait a few days for the total amount with the tip to go through and its just annoying. She had the nerve to raise her voice to us and say to go get change from the store up the street. Okay so you want me leave with my money while you hope I come back? You trust me to leave but dont trust my 100 dollar bill? Absolutely ridiculous. I ended up using my debit card to pay after telling this woman that she should not have raised her voice and tried to insult PAYING CUSTOMERS. I got no apology, just "can you just use a card to pay?" EVEN HAD THE NERVE TO ASK ME WHERE SHE CAN GET ONE OF THOSE MARKERS AFTER I SUGGESTED SHE GETS ONE. GET IT FROM THE BANK WHERE I GOT THE MONEY FROM! Not even worth going back because the food is so hit or miss. Update:: I took the bill back to my bank JUST TO BE SURE and they happily exchanged it so that I didnt have further confusion in any other...

I could never figure out why we rarely eat there. It's a nice decor, the service is very good, the location is perfect for West sider's...tonight I finally figured it out. The cook can't cook. I had the worst carbonara I've ever been served tonight. Any cook worth his knives would not have let it leave the kitchen. He had to know that he ruined the sauce and clumped the eggs. Carbonara is a simple dish to make but it requires skill. This one was started with onions, there should not be any onions in this dish. The egg and cheese mixture seems to have been done with no added yokes, only beaten eggs and very little cheese. Extra yolks should be added to make a nice golden sauce. The sauce was cooked incorrectly...either in a hot pan or with too much hot pasta water added. The egg whites came out in big clumps. It was undersalted and lacked cheese. Finally, there was a strong flavor of garlic...some might consider this to be an acceptable ingredient but I don't recall ever having garlic and onion in a carbonara....and it's my go to lunch in Italy. I was surprised that the manager didn't offer to comp the meal but I wasn't expecting that....but given how poorly it was prepared she should have. We'll still eat there once in a while...the fish fry is in...